$328???
I just bought a new Windows 8 machine for that much.
(well a couple bucks more, but not much)
So how much did you get as a rebate for having to suffer with Windoze? :)
The point here is that someone has replaced all the crapware.
It’s not for everyone but I kinda like the idea. If you bought a different product, say a refrigerator, and it started running funny, food got too warm, and every few weeks you had to pull it out and unplug it to make it work right again, I suspect we woudln’t put up with it. But Microsoft puts out crap after crap and gets away with basically the same thing.
You have much sorrow, I feel. (in best Yoda-ish voice)
But seriously, you have My sympathies. Especially having some personal experience with the latest versions of the MS OS's that had Me fuming so badly that I simply 'downgraded' and had much more performance as a result.
Well, that and changing to a dual-boot to Linux in every case. MUCH better now!
This Asus laptop was about $250 with Win8 installed, and it’s not a recycled. Nothing like secular “charities” to do nothing other than pay big salaries to the pied pipers at the top.